


Happy Birthday, Scully!

by FridaysAt9



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22845553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridaysAt9/pseuds/FridaysAt9
Summary: It’s not actually Scully’s birthday, but that doesn’t stop Mulder from treating her to a birthday spa day, complete with couples massages, mud masks and pedicures.For the X-files Fluff Exchange. My prompt from crescentmoon223 was: It’s Scully’s birthday, and Mulder wants to do it right for once… no monsters or aliens allowed. How will he woo her, and will there be any mishaps?Set during season 11, following Plus One.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 21
Kudos: 59
Collections: X-Files Fluff Fanfic Exchange (2020)





	Happy Birthday, Scully!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crescentmoon223](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescentmoon223/gifts).



> I am not sure if this is in the slightest what you imagined, but you know how Mulder is about remembering birthdays and who doesn’t want to imagine our favorite FBI agents at a spa? I added a bunch of episode references for you and I really hope you enjoy this silly and fluffy story! I had a blast writing it. Thanks for the promp!
> 
> Thank you to erosanderis, my beta from another fandom.

Scully had every intention of getting to work early, but she found herself snoozing her alarm a few too many times, causing her to arrive at the J. Edgar Hoover building exactly at 9:00. She was still rattled from their last case, seeing an evil version of herself who now showed up in all of her nightmares, and to be honest, from just being back on the X-files all together. 

And then there was Mulder. She hadn’t spent this much time with him in years, and yet they fell so easily into step that it was simultaneously comforting and stifling. For what felt like her entire adult life, this man had been her other half. The ying to her yang. The answer to her call. 

As many times as she had tried to distance herself, she was never quite able to break the bond that continued to tie them. She answered his calls. She ended up in his bed. 

The result of all this had been in turn, a zeal that she hadn’t felt since her twenties and an all consuming exhaustion that threw her into a dead sleep that only the emotionally fatigued experience. 

Taking the elevator down to the basement and walking through the dark hallway to their office still hadn’t lost its novelty. The fact that she was back in this building, with a gun on her hip and a badge on her chest, still felt like some alternate reality. Sometimes she felt like she was playing the role of Special Agent Dana Scully and had to give her head a shake to remind herself this was real life. She was Mulder’s partner again and they were really investigating the unexplained. They really had investigated a man who turned into a lizard. Or… a lizard who turned into a man? Either way was unlikely, but she still typed up a report on it. 

When Scully got to the office, it was empty and quiet. Mulder almost always beat her in, what with his sporadic insomnia. Since Mulder was Mulder, she found herself trying to keep her raising panic at bay. Whenever he wasn’t where he was supposed to be it was entirely possible that he was breaking into a building, jumping on a moving train car, or risking his life in one of a million different and outlandish ways. 

As she walked around the desk she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and pressed speed dial number one. She heard Mulder’s voice on his outgoing message as she spotted a yellow square on the surface of the desk. The Post-it read “15th and F. NW.”

“Mulder…”

She slipped her phone back in her pocket and glanced at her watch. 9:15. They didn’t have any meetings planned and no case demanding they catch the next available flight. She sighed, grabbed her jacket and headed out the door. 

~~

A crisp fall breeze blows Scully’s hair behind her back as she walked the few blocks to the address listed on the Post-it. The sun feels good on her skin after spending so much time in that dusty basement lately, but her racing heart puts a little damper into the pleasure of it. She had tried Mulder’s cell two more times, and again only managed to reach his voicemail. This isn’t the first time he’s given her few details and expected her to turn up at an undisclosed location on a whim, but she’s a little out of practice at this type of mystery and finds herself a jumble of nerves. 

Squinting into the sun, she makes out Mulder’s form leaning against the side of a building. Her stomach gives a flip as she soaks him in before he catches sight of her. He isn’t dressed for work like she is. He wears a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt that hugs his chest, showing off the physique she has recently become reacquainted with, and his slouchy green canvas jacket that should look old and grungy, but on him looks sexy. Like home. 

Mulder sees her and throws her one of those smiles that makes time stop. She reminds her body to keep it cool as she approaches, a sly smile on her own face. 

“Hey G woman,” he says, leaning in and giving her a lingering kiss on the cheek. “I see you got my note.”

“Yes, I did,” she says, crossing her arms under her chest, her face a mask of impatience that she doesn’t feel. “It’s a work day Mulder.”

“I am aware of this,” he says, playing into their typical banter even though it feels more like a familiar game rather than a genuine back and forth. 

“We can’t work on your birthday, Scully.”

“Mulder,” she says with a mix of actual impatience and confusion. “It’s not my birthday.”

“It’s not?”

Scully lets out a tsk sound and rolls her eyes. “Mulder…” she whines, “you have an eidetic memory. You know it’s not my birthday.”

Mulder rubs his chin and mumbles to himself, “Not your birthday…” He mostly manages to keep a straight face, but she catches a smile behind his eyes. 

“Scully, did you know that in ancient Rome only men were permitted to celebrate their birthdays? There are no records of women celebrating birthdays until the 12th century, but I suppose that might have just been par for the course seeing as Egyptian pharaohs, more men by the way, celebrated their birthdays on their coronation days when they were believed to become gods, rather than on the day of their actual births.”

She looks at him with a pleased smile across her face. She’s always happy to spend time with him.

“Anyway,” he says, “cake didn’t turn up on the birthday scene until much later, so how great could those celebrations have really been?”

“You know you’re crazy, right?”

“Scully, what did you do on your birthday last year?”

She has to think for a moment and says, “I think I went to my mom’s house.”

“And the year before that?”

“At the hospital. Overnight shift.”

“And the year before that?”

“Hospital,” she says with certainty, “although I did see you that night, if I remember correctly.”

Mulder’s face stays completely relaxed as if she hadn’t just publicly referenced a night of passionate, not-a-couple birthday sex, but she sees the slight shade of pink that has crept to the top of his ears. She throws him a suggestive eyebrow raise and he chuffs out a small laugh, caught.

“My point is, when was the last time we really did something for your birthday?”

Without hesitation she says, “1997.”

“Oh come on Scully! Don’t crush a guy who’s trying to be romantic.”

She can’t keep the smile from her face. “So that’s what this is.”

Mulder pantomimes stabbing himself in the heart and twisting the knife, mumbling, “1997.”

“Regardless,” he says, “we have a lot of catching up to do, so the time is now. Plus, this weather is so much better than February.” 

~~

“A spa, Mulder?” she says, as he checks them in at the counter. 

“Yes a spa,” he says, as if this is the most natural thing they’ve ever done. “I know how much you enjoy your fancy bubble baths and relaxation tapes. And those pretty pink toes that are always perfectly maintained.”

Now it’s her turn to blush. He always did love that her tough exterior hid femenine touches like pink polish on her toes. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Petrie?” a young brunette holding a clipboard says as she steps towards them. Scully shoots Mulder a look and he simply shrugs. “We are ready for you.”

She leads them through a doorway into a small receiving room with comfy looking chairs and a lingering smell of lavender and vanilla. 

“So we are going to start with our couple’s massage,” she reads off the clipboard as Scully gives Mulder’s ankle a swift kick to stave off her discomfort, “followed by mud masks and we will finish your experience with relaxing hot stone pedicures. Would you like some champagne while you change into your robes?”

“Yes we would, thank you,” Mulder says, wrapping his arm around Scully’s shoulders. His Mulder smell cuts through the spa scents and sets her body on fire. “This beautiful woman is celebrating her birthday today.”

“Wonderful!” the woman says, as if he’s just confessed Scully was the most recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. “I’ll just run and grab that for you while you get all set.”

As soon as the door closes, Scully whips around to face “Mr. Petrie.”

“Mulder, what the hell? Mr. and Mrs. Petrie?”

“Let’s just have a good day,” he says, sitting down and untying his shoes. “No monsters, no aliens. We’ve missed so many celebrations, and we are here now, together, so let’s enjoy it.”

“And work?”

“I called us both out,” he says. “I hear the food at that deli down the street is questionable at best. We aren’t feeling well from yesterday’s lunch.”

“We’re not?”

“Nope. But a day of relaxation should help.” 

Scully lets out a sigh and sits on the chair next to Mulder’s. On one hand, she is impressed with the day he has planned. This is more thought than he has put into something for her in a while, but on the other hand, they haven’t really clarified what they are doing and this all feels like treading on thin ice, or wading into dangerous waters. They aren’t back together, but she had been happy where they were headed.

“Where did you go?” he asks, pulling her from her thoughts. 

“Just thinking,” she said, grabbing a robe and walking behind a folding screen. “About us. What this all means.”

“You realize I saw you naked not 24 hours ago,” he says, unabashedly stripping down in the open area, putting on his robe. “You don’t have to hide.”

She steps back out, with the tie on her robe pulled tight. 

“Come on Scully, it’s your birthday.”

“It’s not my birthday.”

“Are you sure?”

That earns him a smile. “I know you want more from us, but this still feels new, and I have my house–”

“And I have ours,” he says, stepping closer to her, placing his hands on her waist. His eyes are searching hers, so familiar and comforting that she releases a long breath, and most of her discomfort along with it. She steps into his arms, resting her head on his chest. 

“Let’s just be us today,” he says into her hair. “No X-files, no past. Just you and me, together, like we’ve always been.”

Scully feels herself cataloging this as one of the better birthdays she’s ever had, and nods. 

“Although we kind of still have to be the Petries or we’re going to have some uncomfortable and confusing conversations to go through.” 

Scully lets out a bright laugh and all her concerns are gone. It’s just them. 

~~

After their champagne, they went to a warm room for their massages. They didn’t talk to each other, but Scully could feel Mulder’s presence next to her throughout. Every once and a while he reached out to find her dangling hand in the space between their tables, only to brush her pinkie, or squeeze her thumb before pulling his hand back. By the time the had their mud masks applied, Green Tea Macha for her, Dead Sea Mud for him, she felt soft and young. Pliable and fluid. Maybe a spa day was the thing she needed even though she didn’t know she needed it. 

“Now do you see why we are the Petries today,” Mulder says, without moving his mouth. 

Scully laughs, forgetting not to raise her hand to her face. She rubs her green fingers on her robe and turns to look at Mulder. “This mask is much better quality than the stuff Laura used.”

“You were so cute as Laura Petrie,” he says, with his funny mud-mask voice. “All cardigan sweaters and pearl necklaces, but behind closed doors, 100% Scully spunk.”

“Spunk?”

“You’re tough, Scully,” he says, reaching his big foot from his chair to nudge her knee. “You’ve always kept me on my toes. That don’t-give-me-any-of-your-shit attitude made all the crazy cases we ran around on that much more fun.”

“Well I hope I wasn’t a constant pain in your ass,” she says, looking annoyed, before cracking the biggest smile she can manage under her matcha. 

Mulder smiles and leans his head back against his chair. “Remember when we played that video game that was killing people?”

“You mean when you got to meet a porn star in real life?”

“Well yes, there was that. But anyway, you were so badass. I mean, you saved my life, but god were you hot in that plastic, electroshock vest with a huge machine gun in your hands. You were like a teeny, tiny superhero.”

Scully snorts in an attempt not to crack her hardening mask. “Mulder stop it, you’re going to ruin my ‘experience,’” she says, putting the last word in air quotes. “And don’t call me tiny.”

“Ok fine,” he says, turning his head to face her. “Petite.”

“Yeah, well how many times has this ‘petite’ person dragged your enormous body out of harm’s way?”

“Name one time,” Mulder says with the audacity to act as if this had never happened.

“That time when you were temporarily paralyzed in a vent that was way up over my head.”

“Fine. Name one more.”

“Pulled you out of a bile-filled escalator once.”

Mulder shudders at the memory. “I bet you can’t name two more.”

Scully gives up all hope of not cracking her matcha mask, her smile of enjoyment plastered to her face. “Um, I dragged you away from an oil fire, and on top of being heavy and gangly, you were also slimy and smelly. And… I also dragged you out of that trailer before it blew up. Which was another evil computer thing. Come to think of it Mulder, I am always literally dragging you away from danger.”

“The feeling is mutual Scully,” he says, again resting his head on the back of his chair. “I’m just lucky I have a tiny partner.”

“Hey!” she yells and swats him on the arm, which causes him to attempt to swat her back, leaving both of them flapping their arms at each other in a fit of giggles. 

Their spa attendant walks in wearing a fake smile. “Is everything okay in here?”

Scully lands a sharp punch to Mulder’s shoulder, causing him to hiss in pain, and says, “Yes. Everything is perfect.”

~~

“I’m thinking about coral, but the black seems really edgy and cool.”

“Are you really going to walk around with coral-colored toenails?” she asks while trying to decide between Muchi, Muchi and Machu Peach-u. 

“No one’s going to see them, Scully,” he says, returning both colors to their places on the wall. “Well, accept maybe you. Which one are you going with?”

“Muchi, Muchi,” she says, holding up the light pink bottle. 

“Then I’ll do the same.”

“Mulder, who are you?” she says shaking her head and climbing into her pedicure chair.

“What?” he asks innocently, “I can’t enjoy the finer things in life?”

“Fine,” she says, handing the polish to the pedicurist. “Since it’s my birthday, we’ll match.”

“Now you’re talking!”

She’s honestly enjoying herself and he was right. Forgetting about their twenty plus years together and focusing on today feels fantastic. 

As if reading her mind, Mulder brings up the past saying, “Hey, remember that time you almost made out with that guy with the tail?”

The hot stones that had been blissfully massaging her calves stop and the pedicurist looks up at them while keeping her head tipped down. Presumably for their privacy. 

“Mulder, really!” she hisses, then leaning towards the woman at her feet. “I’m sorry. My husband thinks it is funny to shock strangers with random pronouncements.”

“Eddie Van Bundht. The H is silent.”

“I know what you’re doing,” she says, not looking at him, “and I’m not going to admit it.”

“What?” he asks, with a tone of mock shock. “That you wanted to kiss me, even way back then?”

“Really. I’m sorry about him,” she says to the pedicurist who is now rinsing her legs. The woman working on Mulder is completely ignoring their exchange. 

“It’s true.”

“No.”

“Then why did I find you on the couch with him inches from your face?”

“Mulder! Stop it!” she whisper yells, turning to see the smug grin on his face. He says nothing, but continues to stare at her… expectantly. 

“I’m just saying.”

Scully just sighs, crosses her arms under her chest and says nothing. He isn’t wrong. Of course she had thought about kissing him for years before they actually did, but he already knows that. He knows everything about her. He just wants to stir up certain feelings in her… and maybe brag a little. 

And it’s working. After a day with Mulder, laughing and reminiscing, she is ready to get out of this spa and enjoy some alone time with him. 

She turns her head to stare at his face, eyes closed, while his toes are painted pale pink. He looks relaxed with a slight smile on his face. He is older than when they first met, but all the changes that had happened to his face and body somehow endeared him to her even more. They had grown up together and his 50s body is now perfectly formed to her own. 

She closes her eyes and reaches out to squeeze his hand. 

~~

“I feel different with pink toes. More confident, maybe?”

Scully just rolls her eyes as she shrugs on her jacket. She’s feeling a little antsy now that their spa day is finished. It’s almost like the end of a first date. Will he walk her to the front door? Will he try to kiss her? Will he make a suggestion that they should do this again sometime? 

How does he always manage to elicit these types of reactions from her? 

Deep in thought, she hadn’t seen him coming towards her until he is suddenly well within her personal space. 

“I brought you something,” he says, reaching into his pocket and removing a plastic wrapped brownie that is slightly squashed from a day spent tucked inside a jacket. It’s dark chocolate and from her favorite coffee shop. His head is tipped down towards hers. His voice is barely above a whisper, with a gravelly tone that turns her legs nearly to jelly. She can feel his breath on her face and smell all the spa lotions his body is covered in. “Sorry no pyrotechnics this year, but I hope you enjoyed your birthday.”

Scully reaches up and rubs her thumb across his eyebrow, straightening the hairs that weren’t really out of place to begin with. 

“I did,” she whispers, cupping his cheek. “And I did want to kiss you all the way back then.”

Mulder starts, “I knew—” but is cut off by her lips lightly brushing his own. She is on her tippy toes, pressing her chest into his body. The kiss is sweet, but there is the emotion of years together and years apart that makes it feel extremely intimate. 

Scully pulls back and lets her feet rest on the floor. She takes the brownie from his hands, opens it, and takes a bite. With her mouth full of chocolate, she gives him a smile and says, “Let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you would like to listen to this story, the fabulous team at Audio Fanfic Podcast have made a recording. How cool is that? You can listen to it here:
> 
> https://soundcloud.com/audiofanficpod/xf-happy-birthday-scully-by-fridaysat9


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